BRUSSELS — European Union officials are delaying their retaliation against President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs — including 50% levies on American whiskey — until mid-April, aiming to refine the list of products that will be hit while allowing more time to strike a deal with the United States.

The European Commission has decided that all of the countermeasures it announced this month will take effect in mid-April, instead of starting to phase in on March 31, spokesperson Olof Gill said Thursday.

“This provides additional time for discussions with the U.S. administration,” Gill said.

The EU was already consulting with its 27 member nations over the specific items that will be subjected to new tariffs, a 99-page list that covers everything from lingerie to soy products to machinery parts.

In all, European officials have said they expect to put tariffs on up to $28 billion worth of U.S. exports.

But Europe’s plan has met with a firm response from Washington, and European officials have been told that negotiations to avert tariffs will not begin in earnest until April, according to the bloc’s trade commissioner.

Trump has threatened to impose a crushing 200% tariff on European Champagne, other wine and alcohol in response to Europe’s measures.

Europe’s wine industry is in the crosshairs of the trade spat.

Among those concerned is David Levasseur, a third-generation wine grower and owner of a Champagne house in France’s Champagne region.

“It means I’m in trouble, big trouble. We hope it’s just, as we say, blah blah,” Levasseur said, standing in his Champagne house as he swilled a flute of his vineyard’s bubbly. “When someone speaks so loudly,” he said of Trump’s 200% threat, “it’s about the media buzz. But in any case, we think there will be consequences.”

Some European leaders from wine-producing nations have since criticized the planned EU response.

Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, has warned against a “vicious circle” of trade measures, and François Bayrou, the prime minister of France, has said Europe is at risk of “hitting the wrong targets.”

The goal in delaying the first wave of European countertariffs is to “strike the right balance of products, taking into account the interests of EU producers, exporters and consumers” while remaining open to a dialogue with the U.S., Gill said Thursday.

Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s trade commissioner, said in a speech Thursday in Brussels that Europeans believe the U.S. plans to impose additional tariffs April 2 and that Trump administration officials do not want to negotiate until after those are announced.

“Only then may partners be able to engage on possible negotiations,” he said, adding that the EU would be flexible in trying to respond to the new measures.

The Associated Press contributed.